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Reception of religion and media 127

name is It’s a Miracle] and that was the other thing I wanted to ask
you about. I know that’s a PAX show. Can you tell me a little about
that?
Judy: I like Miracles from first-hand experiences as far as being saved.
Yeah the Miracle station on PAX is interesting and there is another
program that is going to be coming out it’s for people that have passed
on where they speak to this person and that person tells you what they
have said.
Interviewer: That’s coming up?
Judy: Yeah.

For Judy, the compelling thing about programs like this one and the others
she watches is their “reality.” She sees them as dealing with life in its
concreteness, yet as it is infused with something beyond the concrete. This
is her explanation for liking Touched by an Angel, for example. “It comes
down to life and reality,” she says, “as far as what does happen in life.
Experiences.” The Interviewer asks, “So do you like it because it’s about
what you think of as real people, or is it the spiritual element that you
like?”

Judy: They’re combined together.
Interviewer: In what way, in terms of your enjoyment of the show?
David: The mysteries.
Interviewer: The mysteries on that show?
Judy: The angels um . . . what else? I guess the faith.

There is a way that religion and spirituality become compelling for Judy
when they are connected with or revealed in “real life.” This is, of course,
a capacity of the media that makes Judy’s “in-home” religious experience
what it is, and makes it distinct, for her, from traditional “out-of-home”
religion. Where Touched by an Angel is rather conventional in its religious
referents, other programs she watches are compelling in the same way
without being quite so connected with religious categories. The Interviewer
asks Judy to talk about what she likes about It’s a Miracle. Judy describes
a recent plot where a van was stolen from a gas station, and there was a
child in the van.

Judy: Yeah. And then there were two angels, two people here on earth,
that went and chased the van, to get the van back, and they saved the
child in the van.
Interviewer: Angels meaning. . . .
Judy: People, just regular people.
Interviewer: When you say angels, what do you. . . .
Judy: Came to their rescue.